Twenty-five college students were tested for recognition memory of small common objects immediately after exposure and after a retention interval of 1 week. The objects were classified into three object types based upon a cluster analysis of rated stimulus characteristics. The results indicated that recognition performance was influenced by object type and retention interval. The importance of considering stimulus characteristics in theoretical explanations of memory for environmental detail was discussed. Adaptation to a new or unfamiliar environment involves the processing of information extracted from physical components of that environment. Few studies have reported the nature of visual information retained from objects and scenes in real-world environments. Using schematic drawings of realistic scenes,
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